In an unusual move, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) objected last week to a routine Senate resolution commemorating Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week.

Congress passes hundreds of resolutions, meant to commemorate everything from a special awareness week or Little League champions. The resolutions lack any real power of law and are predominantly ceremonial. For example, earlier this month the Senate passed resolutions to mark “World Plumbing Day” and commemorating the three-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake.

In order to keep business moving and not clog the Senate floor, they are normally passed in bulk through a  “unanimous consent agreement," meaning a vote isn’t tallied since both sides agree to it.

(PHOTOS: CPAC straw poll results)

But last week, Cruz objected to including the MS Awareness resolution. He was unhappy with a clause in the resolution describing the purpose of the Multiple Sclerosis Coalition, according to a Democratic staffer.

Cruz’s staff said the problem was timing.

“The Senator, like many of his colleagues, will not grant consent to call up and pass a resolution or bill at the last minute without time for review,” spokesman Sean Rushton said in a statement. “The Texans who sent him to Washington expect nothing less."

(Also on POLITICO: Priebus honors new "liberty-minded" GOP generation)

After the story was posted about Cruz's opposition to the resolution, his office pushed back harder.

“Senator Cruz does not oppose the substance of the MS resolution, and he never did," his spokesman said.  "Unfortunately, the sponsors of this resolution circulated their request for unanimous consent less than 48 hours before they wanted it passed.  A member of Sen. Cruz's staff--who herself suffers from MS--asked for time to review the language, and to perhaps suggest revisions to the language, as is typical.  It appears that Senate Democratic staff, instead of working to ensure unanimous consent, instead decided to leak this story to try to malign Senator Cruz.”

House Speaker John Boehner says Sen. Rob Portman is a "friend and ally" but he disagrees with his position on same-sex marriage.

In a statement Friday, Boehner said he respects Portman's position, "but the speaker continues to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman."

A Boehner spokesman said the two Ohio Republicans have spoken about the announcement, but did not say when that converation occured.

Portman, who served with Boehner in the House from 1993 to 2005, announced Friday he was reversing his opposition to gay marriage because his son - a college student at Yale - is gay.

The word of the day from Democratic leaders emerging from this afternoon's meeting with President Barack Obama was “optimism.”

“We just heard from a very optimistic man,’ House Democratic Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.)  “The president walked in having just had lunch with Senate Republicans, my sense was he’s a man that’s confident that if people could put aside some of the extreme parts of the partisanship that we all can see we can get some things done.”

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reiterated that the president seemed “optimistic” and made the point to Democrats that there was a “window in between elections where we are just here to get the job done.”

But House Democrats said just because Obama was ready to work in a bipartisan way, it wouldn’t mean that he was going to stop working to get Democrats elected in 2014.

“It shouldn't be earth-shattering to anybody that any president of the United States would prefer to work with members of his party, who will not block him and slam the door on any compromise,” said Rep. Steve Israel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  “There’s nothing new there. The president also said to us there is a time for politics and there is a time for governing."

While Obama told the caucus that he had run “his last campaign,” Pelosi interpreted that to mean he did not want his congressional outreach to be misinterpreted. 

“I don’t think he’s ever done anything for political reasons,” she said. “He didn’t want other people to attribute any political motivation to what he’s doing. This is a President who has been as bipartisan as any as I’ve ever seen.”

President Barack Obama went to Capitol Hill to sit down for lunch with Senate Republicans, but like many such events, the speaker never got to touch his plate.

While the senators had Maine lobster and blueberry pie made with fruit from the Pine Tree State, Obama didn't partake.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she presumed the president didn't eat due to security concerns.

“I reminded him that we are all tasters. If the food had been poisoned, all of us would have keeled over,” Collins joked with reporters afterward.

“He remarked that we had far better food than the Democrats and I said that was because I was hosting," she said.

Collins said the food — including the blueberry pie’s “antioxidants” — was an attempt to reach out to Michelle Obama’s healthy eating initiative.

Two Los Angeles-area congressman got into a heated exchange at the end of today's session with President Barack Obama.

With several members still standing to ask questions at the three microphones set up for that purpose, Rep. Xavier Becerra, who hosted the meeting as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said they would have to sit down because the president had to go, according to accounts from several people in the room.

While most complied, Rep. Henry Waxman, a 38-year House veteran from Los Angeles, stood his ground and began to ask a question about the president's commitment to climate change legislation. Becerra tried to cut him off, but Waxman kept going.

(Also on POLITICO: Obama to Democrats: Chill out)

Obama offered to answer the question in private, but Waxman declined, indicating he wanted the whole group to hear an answer.

Several Democratic sources said Waxman was rude to his colleagues in demanding to be heard with what Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi later termed more of a statement than a question. Other Democrats chose to abide by Becerra's admonition to sit down and let the president leave.

The president reiterated his strong support to address climate change, Pelosi said afterwards.

UPDATE: Waxman called POLITICO to explain his thinking. Becerra was "absolutely right" to point out that Waxman had pushed himself forward when others were told that question time was over, Waxman said. But while he was sitting in the meeting, he felt a strong urge to praise the president for talking about climate change in his inaugural address and to encourage him to continue focusing attention on it.

"I used that opportunity to make the point on climate change because it's an important issue that just is not being discussed adequately," Waxman said.

House Speaker John Boehner is turning down a trip to Vatican City with Vice President Joe Biden so he can attend to congressional issues in D.C.

Boehner, who is Catholic, got the invite to Pope Francis's swearing in on Wednesday, after President Barack Obama visited the Capitol.

“I am grateful for the invitation to attend the papal investiture in Rome with Vice President Biden, and would like to be able to join the trip," Boehner said in a statement to POLITICO. "Unfortunately, my duties in the House next week - including hosting President Obama and the Prime Minister of Ireland at the Capitol on Tuesday, and the debate on the budget - make that impossible. I wish the Vice President all the best in his journey, and hope he communicates the prayers and warm regards of every American, especially Catholics, to the first pope from the Americas."

Obama will be at the Capitol next Tuesday for the annual St. Patrick's Day lunch.

Tea party favorite Allen West announced Wednesday he is launching an issue advocacy group aimed at fostering a new generation of minority and veteran conservative leaders.

"From the time I first took an oath to support and defend our constitution as a young Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, I have committed my life to our nation and its constitutional principles," West, who lost reelection to his House seat in November, said in a statement. "I feel both a duty and an honor to encourage others to follow a similar path."

As a 501(c)(4), the group will be allowed to air issue advocacy commercials. The group also plans to hold seminars and forums.

The Florida Republican also started an online radio program recently.

But while West is staying in the public eye, national Republicans say he’s unlikely to challenge the person who beat him, Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, in 2014. The party has begun looking at several potential challengers, including St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery.

Rep. Jeff Duncan didn't get the memo that House Republicans weren't to take pictures of President Barack Obama during their closed-door meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The South Carolina Republican tweeted out a couple of photos of the president from his front-row seat.

My view at meeting with President Obama twitter.com/RepJeffDuncan/…

— Rep. Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) March 13, 2013

Another shot of President's mtg with GOP twitter.com/RepJeffDuncan/…

— Rep. Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) March 13, 2013

Top House Democrats said Wednesday that early skepticism of President Barack Obama’s outreach to Congress was unwarranted.

“It’s an old expression: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Had the President not reached out, you all would be criticizing him if he had not been reaching out to Democrats and Republicans,” said Democratic caucus vice chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) “The general sense is has been that he’s been lacking, and he’s doing it now! Let’s see whether or not it does produce results.”

Caucus chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said that the fact the President was coming to Capitol Hill was a clear indication he was serious about getting something done

“When you run for the office of the presidency I don’t there’s anything that you don’t do that’s serious…I think the President is determined to brake this stalemate of brinksmanship and getting us to work bipartisanly as Americans,” Becerra said.

“I think that whenever the President comes to Congress and speak in a personal way to members, has an opportunity to take them to the White House for dinner or to come here on our territory, on our turf, I think we all need to take it seriously,” Crowley added.

Crowley cited John Lennon’s song ‘Give Peace a Chance,’ and said he hopes Republicans seriously listen to what the President has to say.

“He hasn’t even come here yet and already they are criticizing him coming here and what his motivations are. Let’s see what the President has to say,” Crowley said. “I think Xavier would agree, that when President Bush came to congress, we were highly suspect of his motivations from time to time, but we listened to him and we respected the office. We need to get back to that point, let’s hear him out, let’s hear what he has to say.”

Three Republican senators working to craft immigration legislation in the gang of eight downplayed a report that they had reached an agreement on a pathway to legal status.
 
The Chicago Tribune reported on Monday that the eight senators “have privately agreed on the most contentious part of the draft: how to give legal status to the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.”

While the senators broadly said that giving legal status to the country’s undocumented immigrants remained a top priority as laid out in their proposal unveiled earlier in the year, they denied any details had been finalized.

“There’s ongoing conversations, I read some of those reports and I wouldn’t put a lot of stock into them,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “There’s still a lot of work to be done. You guys saw the principles we outlined, and what I read today what somewhat similar to that but obviously the details are what we are still working through.”
 
Asked if the gang of right had reached agreement on the pathway, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) demurred: "We're not going to agree on a pathway to citizenship until we get everything else agreed to. I'm not going to do a pathway to citizenship unless we get the language on border security and future flow -- access to workers in the future to replace a family-based immigration system with a merit-based immigration system. But I think there's a general consensus that a pathway to citizenship is obviously going to be part of the bill."
 
And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he wasn’t going to comment on the Tribune report but said there were still “rough spots” as he remained “guardedly optimistic” about the talks.
 
“I’ve made the commitment that we won’t comment and I’m sorry that a quote ‘aide’ decided to. It just doesn’t help when you haven’t completed the negotiations,” McCain said.
 
“Honestly, for me in the middle of negotiations to give you details, it could change after our next meeting, it really is not helpful at all,” he added.

Manu Raju contributed to this report.
 

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) plans to run for reelection next year.

“I am out there running,” he told POLITICO earlier this week.

The majority whip has been raising money but has not hired campaign staff yet. He is likely to formally announce his intentions in April.

Durbin, the number-two ranking Democrat in the Senate, has $2.6 million in the bank and a source said he will likely have around $3 million by the end of the first quarter.

Some thought the 68-year old might not seek a fourth term, perhaps taking a position in President Barack Obama’s cabinet.

Durbin has held about 20 events since November in Washington and Illinois. He traveled to 17 states last cycle for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic candidates and the president.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) doesn’t consider himself a “wacko bird,” and he took to Twitter on Friday morning to express his displeasure.

Amash reacted to an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Huffington Post where McCain called Amash and Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz “wacko birds.”

"They were elected, nobody believes that there was a corrupt election, anything else," McCain said. "But I also think that when, you know, it's always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone."

Referring to the fact McCain was one of the GOP senators who dined with President Barack Obama earlier this week as part of Obama’s outreach campaign, Amash tweeted: “Sen McCain called @SenRandPaul @SenTedCruz & me "wacko birds." Bravo, Senator. You got us. Did you come up with that at #DinnerWithBarack?”

Sen McCain called @senrandpaul @sentedcruz & me "wacko birds." Bravo, Senator. You got us. Did you come up with that at #DinnerWithBarack?

— Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) March 8, 2013